“Follow the natural rhythm of your life and you will discover a force far greater than your own.” -Oprah Winfrey

Imagine you are standing at the back of the sailboat and blowing to get the boat to move. You keep blowing harder and harder, yet nothing really seems to happen. The boat rocks a bit, you move but you don't really get anywhere. At the end of the day you are tired, exhausted and not seeing progress. Everything just feels hard. 

You get up the next day and you try new techniques that are supposed to help you blow with more determination and precision. Yet again, not much happens. Except you feel more discouraged.

You look over and it seems like everyone else is moving faster. They seem to have this traction and momentum that you don't have. So, you keep trying harder and while it seems to help, things still don't glide. There is no flow. But you're ok, you understand that sometimes business is hard. You've read all the books that tell you have to hustle, grind and work hard. This is obviously the hard part.

Now imagine that someone walks on your boat and says, “Wow, you're working really hard and not getting very far. Would you like to find another way?” Then they invite you to get in the boat with them, they look around, listen, put their head up to the sky and adjust the sails. As soon as they do that, the wind captures the sails and you start to move. You move fast. You are gliding on the water. You travel more distance in that day than you have the month prior. 

This picture. This story – is me. And it's many of my clients. I didn't know I could capture the wind. I thought I had to be the wind.

What if, it's much easier than we realize. That push, striving, grit and grind are not the source of momentum, flow and results. What if flow is in another direction?

Finding flow, requires we take a moment to listen, look and adjust the sails. 

It requires we see that we are not the wind.

If your life, your business, is the boat, the wind is our deeper nature. It is the source of momentum and flow.

We access it in the moment. We access it via our presence. 

Beyond the current of our mood or our thinking is a deeper current of life. When we find this deeper current, and we align our actions with it, we find flow.  We capture the wind. Our lives and businesses seem to have a life of their own.

Learning to listen and follow the inner nudge and engage from that place, has been a powerful formula for creating new ideas and growing my business. Learning to respect what is alive and in the moment, versus my ideas of success and hard work has led to some amazing and unpredictable results and adventures. 

I've seen this with the entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and leaders I've worked with as well. When they give up the struggle and look for the wind, the natural momentum, there is always a next step. A clear way forward. 

Catching the wind, requires a deeper listening. It requires adjusting the sails. It requires presence. We can't just look at the map we created; we must navigate the ever-changing weather. 

Getting to a destination is a series of adjustments. It is not a straight path. It includes times when there is no wind and we must rest, take a step back but we know the wind is coming. We do not have to produce the wind.

This simple realization, that we can capture the wind, we are not the wind, has had profound implications for me and my clients. One client speaks to it like surfing. He is a lifetime surfer and when we were speaking about finding the natural momentum and flow in his business he said, “I do this when surfing. I wait for the wave; I catch the wave then I ride it. I have never once thought I had to make the wave happen.”

I have hundreds of stories of the surprising and unpredictable results that have taken shape for people when they let go of their control, their ideas and start to see where the winds want to go.

When we get present, listen deeply, let go of our impatience or attachments, we step into what is natural. 

I've seen people step into whole new rhythms and results in their work when they simply got comfortable adjusting and letting the wind, their deeper nature set the course. Synchronicities take place. Connections occur. Opportunities present themselves. 

When we get present to life and the moment versus our ideas of what it should look like, we experience a richer journey and amazing results. This is not a one-time decision. It's a daily practice of allowing our deeper truth to emerge. 

We must get to know this part of ourselves. A huge aha moment came to me when I had the thought, “What if I got as curious about this deeper nature and where it wants to go, as I have been about my own ideas of success.” It was a humbling moment.

I realized how much time I thought about my business and how to grow it yet had spent little time getting to know this deeper part of myself. And listening to it versus all my ideas. 

That moment, years ago, has led to amazing new discoveries. New depths and new riches. And has taken me on a surprising journey.

I encourage you to see this for yourself. Go on your own journey. Where is the natural momentum in your business right now? I know if you stop, listen and look, there is a next step. There is wind. All that is required to capture the wind is to listen and adjust.

I have no doubt that the journey will be full of riches.